When I say- BUSINESS MODEL- I mean the plan which any organization makes to generate revenue.

In terms of the coaching business, the plan will be aligned to providing coaching service to people who need.

You must understand the difference between coaching niche and coaching business model first. While a coaching niche reflects what kind of coach you are, coaching business model refers to what you offer in exchange for money.

Many coaching certification programs will explain that a coaching business model is one that you should use to guide your client through the process of coaching. It indeed is but this is not the entire definition.

The above definition can be apt for a coaching model but it isn’t for coaching business model. The latter signifies guidance which is aimed at boosting revenue (lay emphasis on the ‘business’ word here).

Additionally, there is a misconception that once a coach chooses a business model it is hard to revert. Not at all! We are learners and our experiences may guide us towards a new choice which is ok.

Before diving into coaching business models and the criteria to choose, I want you to keep in mind that you should not restrict yourself to any particular model.

Do you know that you can create your own coaching business model?

There is a lot to discuss and I am sure you are curious to figure out the best coaching business model for yourself. Stay tuned. By the end of this article, your search for the same will end!

What is the need for a coaching model?

A coaching model will define a clear outcome in beginning and will prevent the session from becoming a “chat” with no purpose at all.

I come across many coaches that make a mistake of understanding coaching as just a question-answer round. In the end, they provide their clients with relevant suggestions/advice and think that they did a great job.

Unfortunately, this is not the right approach and to get it right it is crucial that your practice is aligned with a coaching model. This will provide your session with a purpose which would eventually help in the next point.

2. Keeps the session on track

Many times during your coaching sessions you may feel that in an attempt to unveil the hidden secrets you have lost track.

The coaching model helps you to be on track so that you dig only to a level which is required and don’t deviate from the main point.

3. Boosts confidence

If you are following a coaching model you would be ready to answer the questions of your client. Your goal, approach, and process would be crystal-clear in your mind. This would eventually build up your confidence.

So, in a nutshell, a coaching model encapsulates your coaching practice in a layer which enhances your coaching practice and accelerates the pace of your revenue.

Effective coaching models to build your coaching sessions around

I am sure you are eager to know about various coaching models that you can choose from. Below is the list of such models.

GROW

You would have definitely heard about this one. The GROW coaching model is the most widely popular model amongst all.

At this level, the Goal becomes clear between the client and you. This helps in making the conversation fruitful rather than aimless chats.

At this stage, you should be able to discover what are the actual needs and desires of your coachee. Whether the coachee wishes to lose weight, get fitter, grow a business, etc.

Also, what the coachee specifically wants to achieve from your coaching session- actions to move forward, identify options or some strategy, etc.

Reality

Once the goal is clear, now the time comes to analyze how far the coachee is from his/her goal.

What are the client’s current knowledge, skills, and attributes? What progress he/she has made towards their goal? What is he/she already doing which can be enhanced? What are the strengths that can be leveraged to take him/her closer to the real goal?

Options

Your job as a coach is not to provide a final verdict as per what you think ideally should be but instead to help the coachee to think creatively for options.

Many times the clients themselves have the answer to their problems, just the discovery is required.

As a coach, you should encourage your clients to think out of the box and explore every possible option. This can be possible by posing situational questions to provide the client with a different perspective.

For instance,

What if _?

How would your friend do it?

How would you do it if anything were possible?

Wrap Up (or Way Forward)

Now, the options are clear. The time comes to choose the most appropriate one and leave no stone unturned to achieve max results out of that.

Your task is to elevate the commitment level of your coachee. You need to ensure that the coachee has complete awareness of what he/she is doing. You will now provide your coachee with a roadmap that outlines the desired actions, how would he/she do it and who all might help

TGROW is an extension of the GROW model where the appended ‘T’ stands for Topic or clarification and exploration of Topic. The topic stage before the rest ensures that the bigger picture is clear before we define the goals.

The prime objective is to identify what areas the coachee wishes you to explore and what not. This stage can help from setting irrelevant goals. It helps to build a robust foundation and prevent the goals to be set prematurely before the bigger picture is clear.

Some questions that can be put forth at this stage are:

What would you like me to talk about?

What areas do you want me to address?

What all factors do you think are responsible?

Are we missing something?

OSKAR

OSKAR coaching model follows a solution-based approach. It assists your coaching sessions to focus on solutions rather than problems.

It constitutes of the following stages:

Outcome

Scaling

Know-How

Affirm and Action

Review

Outcome

Here you need to ask your clients to build the ‘future-perfect’ picture.

By putting miracle questions like, “Imagine you have achieved the goal, what would it feel like?” or “How would you spend your day after the result is achieved?” you encourage the clients to visualize and detail their desired outcomes.

Scaling

After your clients have a clear picture in their mind the scaling technique asserts how good they are with their goal.

For instance, you can pose this question- “On the scale of 1-10, how committed you are towards our goal?”

Know-How

Your coachee probably has many attributes, knowledge, and skills that are not fully utilized. Now, the time is to dig out for gold. Take time to uncover the resources that your coachee already has and leverage the same to achieve the desired outcome.

Affirm and Action

Give positive statements about what your coachee has just told you. E.g. “I am impressed by the way you tackled that situation.”

Be affirmative about the strengths and potential of your coachee.

After this draw the action plan and tell your coachee how both of you will proceed.

Review

In the review stage, the impact of the actions taken is measured. Alternative approaches are measured and the coachee is asked to focus on what is better and what can be done to make things even better.

3. CLEAR coaching model

CLEAR coaching model overcomes the limits of GROW model.

Contracting

Listen

Explore

Action

Review

Contracting

This is when you open up the discussions, lay the scope of your coaching and clear the rules of working together.

Listen

This stage involves actively listening to your coachee. Not just listening but listening with empathy to develop a deep insight into the problems of the coachee.

Explore

At this stage, the coachee and you give time to understand the personal impact that the situation is having on him/her. Along with this you as a coach also explore the possibilities to get rid of the situation.

Action

This is the action stage where you are deciding the plan of action.

Review

As the name suggests, at this stage the actions taken are reviewed and performance is evaluated. As a coach, you take feedback from your coachee about the value-added and ways in which your coaching sessions can be improved.

4. RESULTS model

This model consists of no goals or objectives. It straightway starts by prioritizing the main issues and gradually proceeds with ways to tackle them.

Reflect

Evaluate

Strategize

Understand

Listen

Take action

Systematize

Reflect

At this stage, you ask questions and re-frame the existing issues at a deeper level.

Evaluate

Here you look for options and carefully assess which of them will be able to take your coachee to the desired outcome.

Strategize

Here you lay the right strategy to succeed with the finalized option.

Understand

Here you make clear what all resources- people, finances, etc. will be required to meet the goal.

Listen

Here you listen to the feedback of others on the plan (more appropriate in a business context). Rethink plan if necessary.

Take Action

Implement the plans and abide by a persistent follow-through.

Systematize

Ensure that processes are permanently changed. Do not deviate from what is decided.

5. OUTCOMES

Objectives

Understand the reasons

Take stock of the present situation

Clarify the GAP

Options Generation

Motivate to Action

Enthusiasm and Encouragement

Support

Objectives

This is quite similar to Goals in GROW. Here the prime objectives are identified and cleared.

Understand the Reasons

This stage demands to clearly state and understand the reasons for the present situation and issues involved. This step ensures that you don’t overstretch or under stretch yourself while setting your objectives.

Take Stock of the Present Situation

Do a proper analysis of the present situation to identify how far the objectives are from reality. Similar to Reality in GROW.

Clarify the GAP

Identify the coachee’s present state and the desired one. Thereafter, reach to a conclusion of what gap needs to be filled.

Options Generation

Take time to levy all the parameters to generate the options and conclude the best. Don’t be biased toward a preconceived solution.

Motivate to Action

Figure out whether the coachee is really motivated for action. If not, plan ways to bring that motivation to revive the spark.

Enthusiasm and Encouragement

Show enthusiasm for the objectives. Encourage the coachee to give his/her best to accomplish the goals.

Support

Be supportive and positive for the coachee’s efforts. Always try to applaud the coachee for the success so far and gently suggest ways through which he/she can perform better.

Does coaching business model limit connectedness in coaching?

Every coin has two sides and the same applies here.

Mostly the new coaches build their coaching practices around coaching models. As more and more experience is gained the practice becomes more natural and less structured. It becomes less reliant and there is greater use of evolved and recognized self-curated models.

The independence from the coaching models sometimes provides the coach freedom to execute in “an alternative environment.”

Whether coaching models enhance the coaching practice or limit it is a heated discussion in the industry. I would personally believe to resort to a model but not completely as this will restrict creative approaches and independent decisions.

What do you think? Wait and reflect for a moment.

Coaching Business models

Coaching models help in giving you the approach for building your coaching practice on. Now, it is the coaching business model which will provide you with the best way for the execution of your practice.

Let me put it this way, For instance, a solution-based approach is what you consider the best for your coaching style. So, you choose the OSKAR model in line with the above discussion.

Great! Now how are you going to execute the same model? Will you give private coaching or you are planning to embed this style in online coaching programs?

Coaching models can help you with the process and the techniques that you should employ to make your coaching session a success but how would you generate revenue? That’s where COACHING BUSINESS MODELS come into the role.

Below I have covered some such models that you can choose from.

Private coaching

Most famous amongst the coaches; private coaching or one-to-one coaching can be extremely beneficial since here you apply all your mind and time into the clients’ issues.

At the same time, I feel that there can be some disadvantages of private coaching too. You are limited by time and also the number of clients (unlike group coaching).

Keep in mind the following points for making your one-to-one or private coaching sessions efficient and effective.

Ideal frequency and duration of one-to-one coaching sessions.

Well, I would recommend having two sessions a week. Long hours generally aren’t productive. The sessions should be more of a ‘reality check’ to ensure the alignment of the desired goals with the current efforts.

2. Always deliver positive feedback

Always provide constructive feedback to your clients. Don’t let the discussion stuck on what the client did. Instead, invite discussions on how to MOVE FORWARD. Encourage clients to come up with a plan. Schedule follow-up session so that you can keep a track of their progress. All you need to take care of is to close the session on a positive note.

3. Keep perfect body language during the session

Don’t separate yourself from the client by sitting too far. Also, make proper eye contact to give a signal that you are actively listening. Your voice and gesture should reflect that you genuinely want to help the client. Take notes during the conversation so that you can use them for the follow-up session. This also gives a signal to the client that you are serious to solve the issue.

2. Online coaching

With the internet reaching all the corners of the world it has become far easier to reach your potential clients. A perk of online coaching is that you can find your clients beyond geographical and cultural boundaries.

You can have online packages or programs with webinars and online one-to-one sessions.

This way you can also save the extra expenditure in leasing and managing the office space.

Decide on your business goals. Ask yourself what monthly revenue do you wish to achieve? How many hours can you devote? What legacy do you want to leave behind?

Step 2: Know who your target audience in depth

You should know the pain, desires, and troubles of your target audience thoroughly. Only then you can provide a solution that would be irresistible to them.

Step 3: Create a differentiated offer

Your offer should be unique. It should totally be client-oriented. At the same time, you should know what will work for which section of the audience. For instance, webinars and presentations won’t work for those who are in grief.

Step 4: Price your offering perfectly

There is nothing expensive or cheap. What matters is the value that you provide. If you are confident that you are providing a concrete worth, don’t hesitate to charge $2k per client. Also this way you will be able to get people who are committed to bringing a transformation and who dedicatedly want to work with you.

Step 5: Start hunting for clients

Start with your local network right away. Have some free webinars and valuable educational content to attract people to your service. Remember that nobody worries about the process, it is the outcome that matters at the end. Exhibit what value you can add to the client’s life. Once you start earning your very first clients, employ referral marketing.

Step 6: Keep revising your strategy

As you keep building your coaching business, the dynamics would change. Revise your strategies and short-term goals accordingly. You can also take the guidance of a mentor if you think that there are greater complexities involved.

This coaching business model can allow you to earn for a long time which private and group coaching models cannot.

For instance, you can create an on-demand course and then sell it as long as you wish. Though this will take ongoing marketing and selling efforts yet if the stuff is really valuable it can fetch you some real bucks!

Below points would help you to sell your service well.

1. Bring your voice into your promotions

You have to know exactly who you would like to attract and what you want to provide them. Avoid the salesy talk that most people have become immune too. Get to the grounds. Your product/service should solve the real problems of your client and this should be reflected in your promotions. Even then many won’t be interested and that’s ok. Hunt for people who would value your guidance.

2. Stop daydreaming by creating a structure

The best time to build the structure is now. Your ultimate goal is generating revenue and there is nothing wrong in keeping the bottom line in mind. Set up a system which is well-structured and that can help you to quickly reach your goal.

3. Price your packages efficiently

This is a crucial part of selling. You should price your package in such a way that it can fit multiple sections of your target audience. At the same time, your focus should be to earn high-end coaching clients. One diamond is always better than 10 stones!

4. Leverage the power of the Internet

There are multiple ways through which you can market your product/service- social media, blogs, webinars, video marketing, etc. According to your target audience modulate your coaching strategy. For instance, if they are youngsters then marketing through Instagram, Twitter and Facebook would be more beneficial. Online marketing ways can help you to generate 5x the revenue that you would make through coaching each client privately.

4. Group Coaching

Most coaches begin from private coaching, gain experience and then move forward to group coaching.

While coaching multiple people at once you can save your time and increase the probability of converting your prospects to clients.

You can have long term coaching sessions which would comprise a series of coaching sessions. Alternatively, you can go for intensive group coaching in which there is one or two days’ workshop. Also, you can have online workshops where many people can participate together.

Proceed in the following way to ensure a successful group coaching session.

1. Build a safe space

If any member is uncomfortable or conscious with you or others then the session can turn into a meaningless chat. You need to create a safe space for each member so that everyone can open up and resonate well with your session. A good idea for this is to have a “get to know you” part at the start of your coaching program. Best way to let your clients know each other and mingle. When members start connecting at a deeper level then trust starts flowing naturally.

2. Define the rules

You don’t need the session to turn into chaos and confusion, right? This is the reason that you need to define the rules in the very beginning.

For how many hours will the session last? Will you ask volunteers to come up or will you call them as you proceed? Will members talk about their key challenges or are you going to be the sole speaker for the entire session. All these and many more things should be decided in advance and carefully planned so that the session proceeds smoothly.

3. Understand the group dynamics properly

Every group will constitute people with different approaches and personalities. Some will always be ready to take the opportunity to ask questions and raise their hands to answer for the ones that you ask. Another section might consist of people who are introvert.

Your coaching session should be aimed to address every individual’s need. None should feel excluded. Stay focus on what is good for the entire group as a whole.

Criteria for choosing a coaching business model

For instance, you have decided that you will start with group coaching. Now if you are an extrovert who loves to address the public you are good to go. If not then it can be a problem in the long run.

In this case, it’s better to start with private coaching, learn the art of confidently giving answers, build some experience and then proceed.

How do the principles of the model line up with the field?

If you are an executive coach who is aiming to train business professionals then online coaching might not be that effective. You would need to understand the dynamics of the organization for which private or group coaching can prove to be more impactful. Thoroughly analyze your niche and choose your business model around that.

Cost

Setting up space, infrastructure, equipment, etc. for workshops and coaching sessions can be expensive on the other hand preparing online sessions and marketing for products might not be so.

How well does it align with your business goals?

You need to be clear with what your business goals are. Then compare whether the coaching business model that you are choosing resonates with the same and helps you in achieving them or not.

Is it practical?

Now, this is something that you need to answer from levying all your individual parameters. Count everything- finances, skills, experience, know-how, etc. and finalize the right model that would fit you.

Will it fetch you results?

You are the best judge about your capabilities and situation. Before finalizing the model, consider all the risks- positive as well as negative- and ask yourself is there any other model that can fetch you better results? If the answer is no, then probably the one in your mind is the best fit.

Why not create your own coaching model?

Why follow a single model? You can build your own coaching business model. This can be a hybrid of the above listed as you can have online coaching programs and at the same time, you can sell your packages through efficient marketing.

For building your own coaching model first you need to finalize your niche. Coaching business models will differ depending on whether you are a health coach or an executive coach.

There is no IDEAL thing. As a coach, you should always explore what works best for you. If you have chosen a model and later realize that it is not working then probably you can give another a try! Don’t worry, we all are learning and it seldom takes time to discover oneself and adapt to situations.

So, I hope you had a great time learning about coaching models, coaching business models and the criteria to choose the best!

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Sai Blackbyrn

He is a multiple-time #1 bestselling author and regularly writes for Forbes. Over time he has gathered a pretty big following in the personal development space - close to 6 million followers on Facebook, co-owning the 3rd largest business meetup group and managing LinkedIn pages with over 200,000 members consisting of coaches, authors and speakers. He is the CEO of .Coach, which specialises in establishing coaches online.